Football league season
The 2009 Russian First Division was the 18th season of Russia's second-tier football league since the dissolution of the Soviet Union . The season began on 28 March 2009 and ended on 4 November 2009.[ 1]
Teams
The league has been reduced from 22 to 20 teams. It features eleven clubs from 2008 Russian First Division , two clubs relegated from 2008 Russian Premier League , five zone winners from 2008 Russian Second Division and two of the third-placed clubs from 2008 Russian Second Division.
Movement between Premier League and First Division
FC Rostov as 2008 champions and Kuban Krasnodar as runners-up have been promoted to the Premier League . They will be replaced by relegated teams Shinnik Yaroslavl and Luch-Energia Vladivostok .
Movement between First Division and Second Division
Due to the league contraction, seven instead of the regular five teams were relegated to their respective Second Division group . These teams, ranked 16th through 22nd in 2008, were Metallurg-Kuzbass Novokuznetsk , Volga Ulyanovsk , Torpedo Moscow , Mashuk-KMV Pyatigorsk , Dinamo Barnaul , Dinamo Bryansk and Zvezda Irkutsk .
The relegated teams were replaced by the five 2008 Second Division zone winners . These were MVD Rossii Moscow (West), Metallurg Lipetsk (Center), Volgar-Gazprom-2 Astrakhan (South), Volga Nizhny Novgorod (Ural-Povolzhye) and FC Chita (East).
Further team changes
Sportakademklub Moscow avoided relegation in 2008 by finishing 15th, but announced refusal to play in the First Division on 18 December 2008.[ 2] On 15 January 2009, SKA Rostov-on-Don refused to play as well.[ 3] Regulations provided that Sportakademclub and SKA should be replaced by two of the runners-up from the Second Division groups (FC Bataysk-2007 , FC Torpedo Vladimir , FC Gazovik Orenburg , FC Avangard Kursk or FC Smena Komsomolsk-on-Amur ). However, since all of those teams refused promotion, the places were eventually filled by third-place finishers FC Nizhny Novgorod [ 4] and FC Krasnodar .[ 5]
Overview
Location of the teams participating in the 2009 season
Team
Location
Head coach
Captain
Venue
Capacity
Position in 2008
Alania
Vladikavkaz
Mircea Rednic
Kamalutdin Akhmedov
Republican Spartak
32,464
10th
Anzhi
Makhachkala
Omari Tetradze
Rasim Tagirbekov
Dynamo
16,800
6th
Baltika
Kaliningrad
Leonid Tkachenko
Denis Matyola [ 6]
Baltika
14,660
7th
Chernomorets
Novorossiysk
Igor Cherniy (caretaker)
Tsentralny (Trud)
12,500
9th
FC Chita
Chita
Oleg Kokarev
Ilya Makiyenko [ 7]
Lokomotiv
10,200
1st, D2 "East"
KAMAZ
Naberezhnye Chelny
Vitali Panov (caretaker)
Spartak Gogniyev [ 8]
KAMAZ
9,221
3rd
FC Krasnodar
Krasnodar
Nurbiy Khakunov
Maksim Demenko [ 9]
Kuban
35,200
3rd, D2 "South"
Luch-Energiya
Vladivostok
Aleksandr Pobegalov
Dinamo
10,200
16th, RPL
Metallurg
Lipetsk
Valeri Tretyakov (caretaker)
Metallurg
14,940
1st, D2 "Center"
MVD Rossii
Moscow
Vladimir Eshtrekov
Avangard , Domodedovo
6,000
1st, D2 "West"
FC Nizhny Novgorod
Nizhny Novgorod
Viktor Zaidenberg
Oleg Gubanov [ 10]
Severny
3,180
3rd, D2 "Ural-Povolzhye"
Nosta
Novotroitsk
Gennady Gridin
Ruslan Surodin [ 11]
Metallurg
6,060
5th
Salyut-Energiya
Belgorod
Sergei Tashuev
Sergei Kushov [ 12]
Salyut
11,500
12th
Shinnik
Yaroslavl
Yuri Bykov
Roman Monaryov [ 13]
Shinnik
18,500 (in reconstruction time)
15th, RPL
Sibir
Novosibirsk
Igor Kriushenko
Aleksey Medvedev [ 14]
Spartak
12,500
14th
SKA-Energiya
Khabarovsk
Vladimir Faizulin
Andrey Konovalov [ 15]
Lenin Stadium
15,200
8th
Ural
Yekaterinburg
Vladimir Fedotov
Aleksey Katulsky [ 16]
Uralmash
13,000
4th
Vityaz
Podolsk
Andrei Novosadov (caretaker)
Andrei Smirnov [ 17]
Trud
12,000
11th
Volga
Nizhny Novgorod
Khazret Dyshekov
Vitali Astakhov [ 18]
Polyot
4,600
1st, D2 "Ural-Povolzhye"
Volgar-Gazprom-2
Astrakhan
Aleksandr Ignatenko
Nail Magzhanov [ 19]
Centralny
18,500
1st, D2 "South"
FC MVD Rossii resigned from the league on 17 July after playing 19 matches.[ 20] The team was in the 19th position with 17 points.
Managerial changes
Standings
Source:
PFL ,
Soccerway Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd matches won; 3rd head-to-head (points, matches won, goal difference, goals scored, away goals scored); 4th goal difference; 5th goals scored; 6th away goals scored
(P) Promoted;
(R) Relegated
Notes:
Results
Source:
PFL (in Russian) Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
Top scorers
Last updated: 4 November 2009; Source: PFL (in Russian)
Awards
On 25 November 2009, Professional Football League announced the award winners for the season.[ 41]
See also
References
External links
Russian First League Russian First Division Football National League Russian First Division/League
Domestic leagues Domestic cups European competitions National teams